Here is a PDF file that you can download that gives an overview of Seymour Bolten’s political friends. Politically he can best be described as a conservative Scoop Jackson Democrat-Republican. These are the people he feels most comfortable with. His friends include Jeane Kirkpatrick and her husband; Max Kampelman, who he grew up with; Charles Lichenstein, a deputy to Jeane Kirkpatrick at the UN; and Dick Scammon, who was a pollster-statistician in the Nixon White House.
They are people who believe in peace through strength. They are not opposed to America the Empire. They believed in a strong American presence throughout the globe. They see America as a liberating, enlightening force for the world. They don’t see America as being harmful to the world. The CIA for them is not a bad organization, but a vital bulwark against the Soviet Union who they believe to be the bad guys. They firmly believe as did Ronald Reagan that the Soviet Union is the Evil Empire.
The term neo-cons was not used in the 1980s, but it best describes who they are and what they think. They would not view Richard Perle as a bad guy.
Israel to them is a vital partner in the Middle East, a partner worth supporting and defending.
Although they may not overtly say so, they, as clear headed sober thinkers, see Israel as vital in a) controlling the oil and gas assets in the Middle East, b) controlling the Suez Canal, c) acting as a police force for the Eastern Mediterranean Sea, and d) standing as a potential bulwark against Soviet aggression into Turkey and Greece.
Max Kampelman was a close boyhood friend. Seymour worked in his father’s delicatessen. They were classmates of sorts at NYU. Max Kampelman went on to a successful career as a lawyer and as a diplomat; he knew the higher level functionaries in Israel’s government. Through Max Kampelman, Seymour Bolten would have additional access to important people in Israel; and they would have access to him.
What is often unspoken in mainstream media is Israel’s geo-strategic role in the American Empire. Israel is a de facto 51st state in the American Empire, and it will continue to be so far into the future. I’m not sure that JFK fully understood this. I think his Irish empathy for the oppressed felt a responsibility to be fair to the Palestinians. This clouded his judgment. He failed to recognize that if Israel desired nuclear weapons, so did the real power in the United States.
The real power in the United States rests within the American oligarchy that is principally educated at Ivy league institutions where Harvard University is the clear and undisputed leader. The oligarchy manifests its power through think tanks, corporations, foundations, media, sports and entertainment conglomerates, NGOs and governmental bodies.
When JFK objected to nuclear weapons in Israel, he was bucking the tide. He was going up against policy that had already been decided but not overtly expressed. Israel was going to have nuclear capability.
Now, of course, this was not the only factor which led to JFK’s assassination, but it is part of the soup. It was just another reason for regime change.
I think it’s key to point out the neo-con connection because we are essentially living in the world that was created by the neo-cons since JFK’s assassination. Now, of course, neo-cons in this day and age would also include neo-libs, or corporate democrats.
One might fairly say that Seymour Bolten’s political group was part of the primordial soup that evolved into the Corporate Party that now rules the United States behind the scenes out of sight from the American public.
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